Recently while on vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains we discovered the Junior Ranger Program offered by the National Park service for kids ages 5 to 12. The way the Junior Ranger Program works is that you purchase (or download) a booklet that is age appropriate and has various activities related to the park that…
Category: Homeschooling
Unschooling / Homeschooling – Where to Start
Way back before we started homeschooling our kids my husband and I had many discussions about educational options. I was a more traditional let’s send them to school and do what “normal” people do kind of person and he was all about allowing our kids to make their own path, more of an unschooling attitude….
Kids Craft – Egg Carton Caterpillars
My daughter collects egg cartons. She has a huge collection stuffed away in a cabinet waiting to turn them into something. We have used them to make fire starters in the past but the other day she decided she wanted to make some caterpillars. She got everything ready and we all sat down at the kitchen…
Self Directed Math Learning with Base Ten Blocks
Can you unschool math? Sure you can, especially with base ten blocks and other manipulatives! My kids love math and love working with numbers, splitting up sets, multiplying (although I’m not sure if they understand what that word is), etc… A great deal of this enjoyment comes from unstructured work with base ten blocks. Base ten blocks are a…
Camping for Take a Child Outside Week.
Last week was Take a Child Outside Week! Did you participate? We went camping! We already had a camping trip planned for our family and some others but as the day of the trip approached the weather looked grim and most of our group bailed. Leaving just us and another family. We decided to forge…
Unschooling the Practical Arts
One great thing about unschooling is that life is learning and “school” is always in session. This weekend we attended an Arts and Crafts festival in town and it was great. There were all sorts of artist there, painter, sculptors, jewelers etc… The girls watched pottery demonstrations, talked with artists and saw various types of art for sale….
Friday Finds – Writing Resources for Kids
Lately I’ve been encouraging my oldest to write more. We don’t follow any sort of curriculum but I do require her to write something every day whether it’s an email or writing in a journal. Lately she has been extremely responsive to writing in a journal. We use a numbered list of writing prompts. Every day…
Unschooling Success Stories
By kigaliwire Ultimately as parents we want to do the best for our kids to put them on a path to success (whatever that’s defined as). This makes unschooling interesting because as much as I see its effects and I see my children learning sometimes there is a little voice deep deep back in…